“If we look to the whole, our growth, as a nation, continues to be rapid beyond example: if to the States, which compose it, the same gratifying spectacle is exhibited. We have daily gained strength, by a native population, in every quarter: a population devoted to our system of government, and cherishing the bonds of union with fraternal affection.
Thus, by happy distribution of power between National and State governments; governments which rest exclusively on the sovereignty of the people, and are fully adequate to the great purpose for which they were respectively instituted, causes which might otherwise lead to dismemberment, operate powerfully to draw us closer together. In every other circumstance, a correct view of the actual state of our Union, must be equally gratifying to our constituents.”
(Message of President Monroe to Congress, December 7, 1824 (excerpt), The Speeches, Addresses and Messages of the Several Presidents of the United States, Robert DeSilver, Publisher, 1825, pp. 498-499)
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President Monroe on the Great Principles
“Against foreign danger the policy of the government seems to be already settled. The intercourse also between every part of our Union, should be promoted and facilitated by the exercise of those powers which may comport with a faithful regard to the great principles of our constitution.
With respect to internal causes [of discontent], those great principles point out, with equal certainly, the policy to be pursued. Resting on the people, as our governments do, State and national, with well defined powers, it is of the highest importance that they severally keep within the limits prescribed by them.”
(Message of President Monroe to Congress, December 7, 1824 (excerpt), The Speeches, Addresses and Messages of the Several Presidents of the United States, Robert DeSilver, Publisher, 1825, pp. 524-525)
